Anyhoo, back to the war on bullshit.

Here's an excellent podcast on dissonance theory.

Clicky linky.

This is exactly why tyrants like Silvio Berlusconi see themselves as poor put upon little victims.

This is exactly why The Fuggin' Pope can sleep at night protecting the cadre of child rapists, and issues moronic little statements that paint the church as the victim of "secularism".

This is exactly why, in general when you have a debate with religionists, especially ones who's job security relies on that stuff, and you point out the ugly bits of religion, you tend to get back a sniveling victimhood response, and a sweeping under the rug of the mentioned offenses.

This is exactly how cosmic douches like John Edward can not only sleep at night, but actually think they're helping people.

This is exactly why when you point up totalitarian censorship, the shady governments in question get their little backs up, and paint you the villain.
Baffling as it is, they actually have it in their little noggin that they're the good guys.

Shit, this is even how/why you had actual Nazis with their jaws jutted, and playing self-righteous at the Nuremberg trials.

This is exactly why even with the rubble crumbling down around them, the people in charge of our economy were in denial.
Some still are.
One nutted up, and admitted he was wrong, so, that's something.

This is exactly why authority figures in general have trouble admitting they're wrong, including courts, which is backed up by the jarring number of convictions that are being overturned by DNA evidence.

And this is even how people stubbornly bullshit themselves into serving against their own interests even in the face of glaring evidence.

This is something the brain does, and we have to watch out for it.

It'd be nice if we could find a scientific way to nip it in the bud before the wrong people gained power.

Lotta bad history has been written that way.